Mix and match three differently coloured and flavoured biscuit doughs to create striking festive treats. Simple to make, these vanilla, matcha and chocolate Christmas butter biscuits are also very easy to eat.
Christmas is traditionally a time for baking biscuits and I usually make the most of it. I tend to make an old favourite or two, but also use the occasion to try out a some new recipes. One of them, this time, were these Christmas Butter Biscuits.
Christmas Butter Biscuits
When I saw some Christmas tree cookies over at Kerry Cooks, I knew they were going to the ones I would base my cookie swap on. It’s such a clever but simple idea. They look particularly festive and they have the added bonus of being great fun to make.
My Christmas butter biscuits were going to be a bit different, of course. As regular readers will know, I’m not overly keen on using artificial colours and prefer to use natural ones that also have a flavour. I wanted something green for the christmas trees, but couldn’t leave out my favourite chocolate either.
We Should Cocoa is all about Christmas this month so I had this very much in mind when planning my biscuits. However, green and brown together seemed a little drab – what a dilemma. In the end, I decided to go all out and make three different doughs: vanilla, chocolate and matcha.
The process of making these cookies is surprisingly simple. It’s just a question of rolling out each dough, cutting circles, then stamping out a star (or whatever designs you fancy), then swapping the stamped out shapes over. Every cookie gets an outer flavour with a different flavour in the middle with contrasting colours. Genius.
These Christmas butter biscuits are a great recipe for kids to have a go out. They’ll love stamping out the shapes and swapping the dough around. Or is this just me?
Cookie Swap
As well as baking biscuits for friends and family, this year I was involved in a cookie swap. Andrea over at Made with Pink was the instigator of this exciting venture. Basically, a group of food bloggers were allocated a member of the group to bake for and would receive in return cookies from another member. All was to be kept secret until the cookies turned up and the baker was then revealed.
I’ve never taken part in anything quite like this before and I really enjoyed both the execution and the anticipation. The “lucky” recipient of my Christmas butter biscuits turned out to be Kevin over at The Crafty Larder.
Biscuits in the Post
The anticipation of receiving my biscuits grew as the days went by. What would they be? Who would they be from. At last I received a beautifully and carefully wrapped parcel in the post – not a biscuit was broken. Eagerly opened, I found two parcels of biscuits inside along with a Christmas card from Andrea. It just gets better and better.
I had a stack of festively stamped sugar biscuits and quite a few large mint chocolate chip & M&M oat cookies. Both were delicious, mint in biscuit form is fairly unusual, so I dived into one of those first. The mint was really refreshing and the cookies delicious. In fact both sets of biscuits were very moreish and not having made them myself, they were particularly enjoyable.
Many thanks to Andrea both for organising the cookie swap and for my scrumptious biscuits.
Other Christmas Biscuit Recipes You Might Like
- Chilli shortbread biscuits
- Chocolate crinkle cookies with roasted hazelnuts
- Cinnamon & honey Christmas stars
- Snowball cookies
- Spicy gingerbread with limoncello icing
- Wholemeal clotted cream shortbread
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these eye-catching Christmas butter biscuits, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like to see more biscuit recipes, just click on my biscuits category. And for more Christmas gift ideas take a look at my gifts category.
Choclette x
Christmas Butter Biscuits. PIN IT.
Christmas Butter Biscuits – The Recipe
Christmas Butter Biscuits
Ingredients
- 250 g unsalted butter
- 250 g vanilla sugar or 1 tsp vanilla extract (I have a jar of golden caster sugar permanently on the go, in which I place any spent vanilla pods)
- 2 large eggs
- 250 g wholemeal spelt flour or wholemeal flour (I used freekah flour)
- 250 g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 4 tsp matcha green tea powder
- 6 tsp cocoa powder
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, one by one along with the vanilla extract if using.
- Work in the flour until it all comes together.
- Divide the mixture into three.
- Add the cocoa powder to one batch and the matcha to another and work that into the dough.
- Cover each one and leave to chill in a cool place for half an hour or so.
- Roll the doughs out to about the thickness of a £1 coin and cut out circles that are big enough to allow for your chosen shape to be taken from the middle. I used a 7 cm diameter cutter for the stars and a 8 cm diameter cutter for the Christmas trees.
- Place the biscuits on lined baking sheets, then cut our stars, Christmas trees or whatever else you fancy from the middle of the biscuits.
- Transfer the vanilla cut outs into the equivalent shaped holes in the matcha and chocolate biscuits and do the same with the others so each biscuit has a different coloured and flavoured centre.
- Bake at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) for about 12 minutes or until the biscuits are just starting to change colour.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Linkies
Rebecca over at Munchies and Munchkins is hosting #WeShouldCocoa this month and very aptly chose Christmas as the theme. These Christmas Butter Biscuits are my entry.
These matcha, chocolate and vanilla cookies also go to Dom over at Belleau Kitchen for Simple Eggcellent.
Kate - gluten free alchemist says
Fantastically festive and perfectly clever Choclette. I love that you have used natural flavours. That matcha green is perfect for Christmas!
Have a wonderful Christmas. Bake lots and eat more! x
Choclette says
Thanks Kate. I’ve been a big matcha fan for a long time and especially like it in baking, both for flavour and the wonderful colour. I’ve baked so many cookies now, I think I’m a bit baked out. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas too 🙂
Lucy @ BakingQueen74 says
I really love these cookies and am dying to try out matcha in baking – yet to find a good but not too expensive source. the two-tone effect is great.
Choclette says
Thanks Lucy. Matcha is rather expensive, but a little goes a long way. You can get baking grade matcha, which is a lot cheaper. Try VitaLife.
Made With Pink says
Choclette, these biscuits are beautiful! I love the colours you’ve chosen, and it’s such a unique idea. I think I might have to borrow this idea for future cookies. Thanks so much for taking part in the cookie swap, and I’m glad you liked the ones I sent you. Merry Christmas 🙂
Choclette says
Thanks Andrea. It’s a fab idea, though I can’t claim the credit. It was fun taking part in the cookie swap and thank you again for the gorgeous biscuits you sent. Merry Christmas to you too.
Johanna @ Green Gourmet Giraffe says
gorgeous biscuits – just the thing for Christmas – some beetroot powder might be good here to bring in some red – though it always turns out a little pink. And the cookie swap sounds like fun.
Choclette says
Thanks Johanna. Beetroot powder is good for colour, but doesn’t do much for flavour and it’s fun to have different flavoured doughs in the biscuits. Guess you could use orange or something with it.
manu says
They are so beautiful!
Merry Christmas
Choclette says
Ah thank you Manu and I wish you a ver Merry Christmas too 🙂
Phil in the Kitchen says
They’re great fun – I love those colours. Perfect for the season and definitely preferable to yet another mince pie in my opinion.
Choclette says
Thanks Phil. I value your opinion highly, but you know what? I haven’t had a single mince pie yet this year. Something is very wrong.
Susan says
Dear Choclette – our postie has just delivered a surprise box of these from you. We can hardly say thank you – only because it’s rude to talk with your mouth full. Your biscuits really are buttery, beautiful, moreishly delish. Wow that green matcha stuff is amazing and they look great too. Yum yum yum – and – thank you – very much.
Choclette says
Hello Susan. Oh phew, glad they found you in the far flung reaches of North Wales and that they arrived in reasonable condition. I’ve been using matcha in baking ever since CT brought some back with him from Japan several years ago and before it became all the rage over here – I do like to beat the trends 😉
Sarah says
These look so adorable. I seriously keep meaning to buy Christmas themed cookie cutters. Now I’ve got the perfect excuse to get some. Thanks Choclette. 🙂
Choclette says
Oh you need Christmas cutters in your life for sure Sarah 😉
Mary says
I love baking and theese cookies look great but where do i get Matcha from and is it a flavour or a colour?.
Choclette says
Hello Mary. Matcha is a Japanese green tea powder. it’s not cheap, but a little goes a long way and it’s very good for you. I really like it as a flavour in baking, but also love it for the colour. You should be able to get matcha at any good health food shop and it’s easily available online. For baking you don’t need the superfine highest quality matcha, so look for the cheaper versions.
Dom says
I love these so much. So clever and so pretty… am making tomorrow x
Choclette says
Oh brilliant Dom. Can’t wait to see yours – I know they will look even prettier 🙂
Kate | The Veg Space says
These are SO pretty Choclette, what a lovely idea. Must give these a try with ‘help’ from toddler…. he would love them!
Choclette says
Haha yes indeed Kate, making these biscuits would be a great activity for you both to indulge in 😉
Diana says
I love these butter cookies, simple idea but they look wonderful!! 🙂
Choclette says
Thanks Diana, they taste pretty good too. The mix of flavours was just right.
Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours says
These are lovely. Such a simple idea, but very effective too.
Choclette says
Thanks Helen. I can’t take credit for the idea, but I loved the result 🙂
LydiaF says
I haven’t tried match anything yet, but I’m in love with the colors!
Choclette says
Thank you Lydia. Matcha is fabulous in baking, I’m a big fan.